There have been used expendables in various image forming systems such as a stencil printer, an ink jet recording system and the like for the reason of easiness in handling or the like. For example, in the stencil printer, an expendable such as a removable ink container or a stencil material roll is employed for the reason of easiness in handling or the like. Further, also in the ink jet recording system, a removable ink container is employed. The above-mentioned expendables are generally installed on the system body to supply the ink or the stencil material to the part in necessity and then are removed when the ink or the stencil material is exhausted to be discarded or to be recycled. When a new expendable is mounted on the stencil printer thereafter, it becomes possible to continuously make print.
In order to suitably carry out an image formation by the use of such expendables, it is necessary to use expendables compatible to the function and/or the characteristics of the system body. When an expendable incompatible to the system body is used, a suitable image formation is impossible and/or the system body or the expendable can come to fail. Accordingly, in order to prevent the use of incompatible product by accident, the shape of the ink container or the diameter of the paper core of the stencil material roll is conventionally made peculiar to the system so that it is physically impossible to install the system with incompatible expendables. However, it is troublesome to manage the expendables when the shape of the ink container or the diameter of the paper core of the stencil material roll is thus changed by the kind of the system. Accordingly, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication Nos. 2001-18507 and 2001-341290, there has been proposed an expendable provided with a storage means such as a memory IC in which distinguishment information representing whether the expendable is a compatible product is stored. Whether the expendable installed is compatible is determined on the basis of the distinguishment information read out from the storage means of the expendable, and when the expendable is incompatible, the system body is inhibited from being operated.
However, when the system body is inhibited from being operated if the expendable installed to the system body is incompatible, it is necessary to interrupt printing until the operator obtains a compatible expendable, which largely deteriorates the printing efficiency.
In view of the foregoing observations and description, the primary object of the present invention is to provide an image forming system which permit continuous printing even if an incompatible expendable is installed in the system body in those which are installed with an expendable provided with a storage means in which distinguishment information representing whether the expendable is a compatible product is stored and are controlled to form an image on the basis of the distinguishment information.